Page 57 · cinematic kill animations · live on real DARK VIVID arenas

25 NEW KILLS FOR THESMG

An SMG is a gun that fires too fast to aim, and everything on this page follows from that. It is not pointed carefully at anybody — it is pointed roughly, and emptied. So the unit here is the magazine, not the shot; the subject is usually the rounds that missed, because there are far more of those; nobody dies of any one of them, only of all of them arriving; and the camera is a beat behind the whole time, correcting late, because nothing about this weapon waits for it. Each kill runs as long as its own story needs, up to fifteen seconds, with the gore at full.

YOU SAID“Even if we are building 1000 kill animations, each one should be very well designed and crafted.”

YOU SAID“From start frame to end frame everything should be very very different.”

1PLAY THEMTap any kill card. Nothing plays by itself. 2THE LANGUAGEWhat makes a kill an SMG kill. 3HOW THEY PLAYRarity order, what a kill needs, the stage. 4THE BOARDAll 35 weapons and what is ready.

TAP A CARD TO PLAY IT

THE SMG KILLS

Tap any card and it plays in the phone above, on a real arena, at full gore. PLAY AGAIN restarts it, SLOW drops it to a third speed, and the track under the phone carries that kill’s own beats — drag it to stop anywhere. Nothing plays until you ask for it. Tap CHANGE on any kill you want rebuilt.

THE ROTATIONMost epic first, then the next

1Your owned kills for this gun play in rarity order, the biggest first. › 2If the spot can’t host one, it is skipped and comes back later. › 3Once they have all played, it starts again from the top.

WHY THESE LOOK LIKE SHOTGUN KILLS

THE CAMERA LANGUAGE

Each weapon family has its own way of being filmed, so a kill reads as that gun’s even before you see the gun. The pistol is precise and films the brass. The pump breaks cover a shell at a time. The minigun is a clock that deletes scenery. The SMG is none of those: it is cheap, close and panicky, and it is the only gun here that misses more than it hits.

THE MAGAZINE IS THE UNITNot a shot and not a burst — a magazine. These kills are measured in mags, the reloads are the act breaks, and the bolt locking back on an empty one is the full stop.

NOBODY IS AIMINGIt is pointed, not aimed. Most of these kills are about the rounds that went somewhere else — the stone beside his head, the ceiling, the shooter’s own boot — because there are always more of those than there are hits.

DEATH BY ACCUMULATIONNo single round does it, so there is no one moment of impact to cut on. People stay standing far longer than they should, and the kill is the instant the arithmetic finishes rather than the instant something lands.

ALWAYS TOO CLOSEContact distance. The muzzle in the cloth, the gas burning the jacket, the shooter flinching away from his own weapon with his eyes shut — this is the frightened gun, not the confident one.

THE FRAME IS A BEAT BEHINDHandheld and late. It is pointed at the wrong thing when it starts, corrects with a small whip, and keeps arriving just after the thing it came for. Nothing about this gun waits for a camera.

DECIDED 23 OCT

HOW THEY PLAY IN THE GAME

These are the cinematic kills, on top of the 238 skin kills that already exist. Nothing is replaced.

ROUND-ENDING ONLYAnd the match-winning kill, exactly as the kill cam works today.

THE APPROACH STAYSWalk-up, dash or ranged as now — the kill itself is the next animation in the rotation.

WHAT A KILL NEEDSA wall to put the misses into, room to spray across, a second foe in the same sweep. If the spot can’t host it, the next one that fits plays instead.

THE CINEMATIC STAGEA mini map built only for kill animations. The kill cam cuts to it so a set piece is never lost.

ANY TAP SKIPSSame as today. Five to fifteen seconds, as long as the kill needs and never padded.

EVERYTHING IS OWNEDFor now. Kills are sold on their own as well as inside a skin.

‹ THE BOARD · ALL 35 WEAPONS PAGE 57 · THE MINIGUN KILLS PAGE 40 · THE SKIN KILLS